PressCon Transcript by Collider.com
Question: Rob and Taylor, is this the movie where Edward and Jacob finally become friends, or learn to love each other as family?

TAYLOR LAUTNER: We’ve always had that relationship, right?
ROBERT PATTINSON: Yeah, I give him my daughter. I sacrifice my daughter to him.
LAUTNER: That is love.
PATTINSON: That’s true love. Basically, this one is a love story between Edward and Jacob.
LAUTNER: Yeah, the relationship between all three of us is a little bit different. It’s always been this complicated triangle, and now it’s a square. No. It’s become much less complicated.
PATTINSON: Now, it’s a circle.

Is this a bittersweet ending of the franchise? How has your final time together at Comic-Con been?

KRISTEN STEWART: It is funny. If you told me tomorrow that we had to have reshoots of some scenes that they weren’t happy with, I’d be so happy that I’d start vibrating because I do really enjoy playing this role. We got to do it for four years. When you do that, even though it is a bummer to walk away, I look back on it so fondly that I hold it and it’s something I’ll always have. I’m really thankful for that.
STEPHENIE MEYER: Someone asked me about their lives changing and I said that I imagine, on a daily basis, it’s a lot more annoying than positive. It’s pretty annoying every day, right?
STEWART: Sometimes.
PATTINSON: Various things, but not really to do with other people. I hate going to the bathroom!
How do you feel personally altered from doing this franchise?

STEWART: You start a project to finish it. It’s this really charged experience that almost is too much, and that’s the only way it ever feels good and right and true. I feel very challenged, even though, if Stephenie [Meyer] suddenly wrote another book, I’d be like, “Okay, let me read it, immediately!” I might just keep that feeling. I know I’ll find that with other experiences. How did it change me? I don’t know. Maybe it affirmed my idea of why I like to do what I do. You don’t always just have to do an indie movie to feel like you’re controlling it with a few people that you really have connected with, creatively. You can do it on a bigger scale. Maybe it’s changed my mind about that. But, as a person, I could not begin to answer that question right now. It’s so loaded.

What were your first impressions of each other, when you met, all those years ago?

MEYER: For me, the first time that I saw them was pretty memorable because I was meeting them for a cast dinner and they were coming from a shoot in costume. So, the first time I met them, they were all dressed up as my imaginary friends and it was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life, but it was so cool to see everybody. I was like, “This is what they look like! It’s real!” I wanted to touch them. It was really, really cool. It was exciting because they all looked awesome and I was really excited to start working with them.
STEWART: I liked [Rob’s] pants. Seriously. It’s so strange. Taylor was a kid when I met him, and after New Moon, he literally wasn’t a kid anymore. Meeting him was very strange. I was like, “Really?!” I fought for it, actually. I knew, with both of them. It’s hard to say in interviews because I can’t define it for myself. Sometimes you meet people and you’re like, “We should make stuff together. We’ll do good. Let’s utilize whatever this energy is, passing between us. Let’s do it!” And I had that with both of them.

What was the one thing you discovered about each other, shooting this last film?

MEYER: It’s hard to find something new, after that long. The one thing that was new for me was seeing Kristen for the first time, as the new Bella. That was amazing! That was a really cool thing to discover about her. Everybody else was just the same, though.
LAUTNER: It’s true. We were all boring. Kristen has done such a good job, over this whole franchise, at playing the perfect awkward, clumsy, relatable [girl]. Now she’s, all of a sudden, just transformed herself into this sleek, sexy vampire, and it’s a completely different person. It was very impressive for me to see, and I think the fans are going to be blown away as well.
MEYER: Honestly, getting to see Bella so powerful was a dream for me. It was amazing!
STEWART: I felt like, “Wow, I’m a sports car. Let’s break it in!” Especially in the book, my favorite part is, “Break her in, man! Let’s see what she can do!”

Rob, how are you similar to your character?
PATTINSON: I’m so excited for this [question]. I don’t know. I can’t tell anymore. I remember meeting [Stephenie] the first time and arguing with [her] tons.
MEYER: He sat there and argued with me about what Edward thinks and feels. It was amazing! It was awesome!
PATTINSON: After you’ve done three movies, you get to a point where there’s a distinctive understanding of it, so you don’t really know where you end and the character begins, after awhile. There are certain things where you don’t know if it’s you thinking. I’ve spent so much time in Vancouver that I’m just like, “Edward wouldn’t do that,” but if someone asks you why, you don’t know why. You’re just like, “‘Cause I wouldn’t do it.”

How would you feel if the Twilight franchise were rebooted?

PATTINSON: I think that would be amazing! I would love to see that!
LAUTNER: That would be interesting, for sure.
PATTINSON: I pity the person who takes over my part. I would destroy them. I would make a campaign against them.
STEWART: What’s really great about this, though, and the reason for turning that last page is what it is. You just have a faith it’s done. I have a very insider’s perspective because I played her, but if anything else happened, I swear to god, please leave them alone! They figured it out. Leave them. By the end of the movie, it’s so abundantly satisfying, sweet and ideal. It just feels good, like it should end. But, I’m down. I’m just saying, I would be open to the idea. I would be really curious to see what it was.
MEYER: It would be really interesting, in 20 years. But, I do pity the person who tries to step into these roles ‘cause that’s going to be really hard. It’s not going to go well for them, I would imagine. This is what is loved. It wouldn’t be the same. It would be interesting, but it would be so hard. That would be the hardest part. Bella’s story is definitely told. It’s final. Back in the day, when I was never going to stop writing about vampires, there was a reason why [Renesme] was created. I was creating a narrator. But, that’s 20 years down the road.
PATTINSON: What about Edward and Bella getting divorced, and it’s a Mr. and Mrs. Smith thing?
MEYER: So, who comes out of that alive?
PATTINSON: That’s the whole thing, they can’t die.
STEWART: I could totally rip his head off!
Rob, at the very first Comic-Con, you were visibly shaken by the fan response. How does it compare now?

PATTINSON: The first one was genuinely frightening. I don’t think any of us had experienced a crowd that large. It’s strange. But, then you get used to it surprisingly quickly. It’s weird. You have a persona that develops in front of a bunch of people, and it’s different specifically with fans of Twilight, as well. There’s a mood which comes out. But, I think this is fun. When you have 6,000 people, it’s like one of the big premieres. The one in L.A. has 10,000 people, or something. But, that’s just walking around in a haze with people screaming at you. With this, there is actually some kind of an element that’s a show. There is a back and forth, a little bit, so it’s way more fun. When you turn up to a premiere, it’s like doing a marathon.
What will the film add, in terms of drama and emotion, to compliment the books?

MEYER: (Director) Bill Condon is really great with finding human emotion, in the middle of fantastic events. I think he did that brilliantly with the first movie. He really made you feel the human relationships there, and I think that carries through. He did a really excellent job on that.
STEWART: I hope it doesn’t sound really arrogant, but we do really cool things with the ending. I think people possibly already know that, which is a bummer. But, I think Bill was the perfect person to direct the fourth book, even though it’s two movies. Bella is a vampire. Her human aspects are gone now. It’s always been something that’s rooted the story, and I was nervous going into it. Now that she’s a vampire as well, it might just seem a little bit hard to grasp. I was worried about there being something to hold. And he totally did it, I think. With the end, I think [audiences] expect something very emotional that’s a bit of a wrap-up, and I’ve seen it four times now and I’ve cried every time. It’s so cool!

Were there any physical aspects of this film that you found particularly challenging or difficult?

MEYER: Kristen wore a hand brace for a lot of the movie.
STEWART: I have really bad luck with my thumbs. It plagues me, actually. It drives me crazy! Both of them are very oddly shaped. I hurt myself right at the beginning of all my action sequences, so any grimace you see is probably real. Physically, this was more challenging than anything because even the way she walks into a room is different than how I walk into a room. If you think a mile a minute, you’re never going to be indecisive about anything. Everything is very pointed. I got to see everyone else’s versions of their vampires over a really long period. I liked picking and choosing what to use and what not to use. Rounding her out was fun, and physically really, really challenging. I remember going up to Stephenie, on the first day that I had to play a vampire, and I was like, “Steph, how am I going to sound like wind chimes, you jerk?! That’s impossible!” Really, it blew my mind. Stuff like that was a big challenge for me. I had to let go of that because I don’t sound like wind chimes.

After doing all these films, do you have a better insight into what makes this a phenomenon?

MEYER: I don’t. It still surprises me, all the time.
LAUTNER: I think [Stephenie] is just being extremely humble about it. I never can answer that question, but all the credit does go back to the books and the characters that [she] created. That’s where it all started. We’re extremely honored to be in the situation to bring those to life, but the characters in the books are what these fans fell in love with. How they relate to them, I have no idea. But, I do know that’s where it began.
STEWART: I have been obsessed with this thing, and it’s been such a personal experience. There are other people that identify with things that I do, and that shared energy is there. It’s very igniting. It spreads. If you like something and can share it with your friend, suddenly you love it because you share it. It was the love that people became obsessed with, but it just lit.

Since you started with Twilight, how has being labeled as being part of the film affected you? Has it hurt you or helped you with different projects?

STEWART: The access that we all have is ridiculous. It’s the hugest compliment, especially if fans of the book pigeonhole you. Please pigeonhole me! That means I did it right. If somebody who is fanatically obsessed with this book and these movies always says, “It’s weird for me to watch you in other stuff,” that’s great. That’s perfect! That’s a compliment. It’s thrown me into the greatest thing possible. The challenge that we have ahead of us, I couldn’t ask for more. Challenge is my favorite thing in life. Now I’m allowed to challenge myself the way I want to, rather than falling into things.

There was so much hype about the sex scenes in the first part of Breaking Dawn. Will fans get some vampire sex scenes in the second part?
STEWART: We’re supposed to have mind-boggling, otherworldly sex in Breaking Dawn 1. The first one was sweet. It was about discovery and it was so not raunchy. Nothing about this series is raunchy. But, in the second one we just wanted to be like animals. We tried and they told us that it was rated R.
Stephenie, can you tell us a little bit about The Host? Have you written the second and third books? Were you trying to achieve the same kind of love triangle with that, as in Twilight?

MEYER: No, actually The Host was totally a palate-cleanser for me. I wanted to do something a little bit different than romantic love. Romantic love is in there, obviously, because I enjoy writing about that and living it a lot. There’s nothing coming out soon in that series, book-wise. As far as The Host movie goes, I’m really, really excited about it. It’s beautiful. I can’t wait for you to see that.
Is there one particular personal memory that you’ll take away from this whole experience?

MEYER: I think that one of my favorite memories was the last week of shooting. We were doing the nighttime wedding stuff and we all knew it was done. We were excited because we got to go home and sleep for eight hours a night, and I would get to see my kids more. There was a lot of it that I was ready to be done with, but it was also really sad because you know you’re not going to get to hang out with each other as much anymore. I remember we all sat in the garage because it was the warmest place in a cold house, and everybody was just hanging out. Kristen was in that gorgeous wedding dress and we were all chilling out in camp chairs knowing it was almost over, and enjoying being with each other and knowing it was not going to be like that again. That was really my favorite.

STEWART: I remember that day. Yeah, I would definitely say it’s hard to pick one moment, but shooting the wedding stuff, walking down the aisle in Eclipse, was really heavy stuff.
LAUTNER: I just remember when it started getting closer to the finish of filming and we hit the three-week mark and I kept telling myself, “All right, it’s time to start soaking up every moment because I know that when this finishes I’m going to want to go back in time and do this again.”
STEWART: Yeah, you have to put yourself in your body.
LAUTNER: We were super tired and exhausted. It was a seven month shoot, but I wanted to soak up everything. We probably all did that, but I’m super glad I did that. I do remember every single moment, up until the last day.
STEWART: My last scene with [Taylor] was about a week before I was going to be finished completely, but I didn’t know it was going to be my last scene with him. He was like, “This is it, buddy!” One of my favorite scenes was when we danced together, after the wedding. It was totally good.
PATTINSON: I remember when Peter [Facinelli] stole a bike. That was hilarious! And when we went to Brazil. It was like, “What is happening? We’ve b
een doing this for years and now we’re in Brazil, on a boat? What is going on?!”
STEWART: We were like the Kennedys. It felt so weird.
PATTINSON: And then, I crashed the boat afterwards, in front of 5,000 people. That was pretty symbolic of the crazy journey. Me and Kristen were in our swimming trunks and a bikini, with 600 Brazilian army men with machine guns and video cameras, filming it in the rain forest in Brazil. We were making out with each other and pretending to jump off a waterfall.
STEWART: He was trying to not get his white paint on me, and I was trying to not get my brown paint on him. It was just dripping off. It was like, “We’re both really white. No more make-up!”
PATTINSON: It was ridiculous! No, it was fun. The whole thing has just been such an insane experience!

A special moment of remembrance was held in memory of Gisela Gagliardi, the fan who tragically lost her life earlier this week.

Taylor Lautner, Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart have taken the stage to much screaming!

Mackenzie Foy has come to the SDCC stage for the first time ever! Stephenie Meyer has joined as well and they’re going to play a special message from Bill Condon. He could not be in attendance because he is scoring the film in London. They’re about to show the first seven minutes! Whoa.

Clip 1

SPOILER ALERT

We start from the moment that Part I ends. Bella has just opened her eyes.
She sees everything. Tiny cracks in the walls. Dust in the air.
Edward.
She looks down at his hand and then at hers.

She sees the ring and moves to embrace him.

She’s stronger than she thinks and he winces in pain.

“It’s your turn to break me,” he says.

He tells her she’s beautiful and takes her to a mirror. She looks at her new eyes.

She wants to see her daughter, but Edward says that she needs to hunt first to get her strength.

We cut to them running through the woods. They’re moving super-fast, but the world slows so we can see their perspective.

A little girl is asking a question: “Did you enjoy finally playing a vampire?”

She says that it was like waiting for Christmas.

and adds, “You’re really cute, man!”

“If your character in Breaking Dawn could give your character in Twilight any piece of advice, what would it be?”

“Keep it in your pants,” Robert laughs to much applause.

Another question about favorite scenes, but this about Breaking Dawn in particular.

Kristen says that shooting the hunt was her favorite and anything with her as a vampire in the woods.

Taylor loves the scene where he confesses about his imprinting.

Kristen says that she always imagined throwing him across a field, but they did in a small space and Bill Condon just made her performance louder.

Mackenzie loved riding the Jacob wolf. She says she lost a tooth.

“Now I have big girl teeth!”

Another little girl just asked, “Was it very fun doing the Twilight Saga?”

They all agree that it was, very much so.

The next question is about favorite concerts.

Nikki Reed says, “Is it cheezy to say that I love watching my husband play music?”

“N’Sync all the way,” jokes Kellan Lutz.

“This is sad right now, to be honest,” says Kristen of Twilight ending. “I’m about to start crying…We’ve gotten to live in this world for such a long time.” She says that it’s bittersweet, but that “bittersweet” is a word that she never wants to hear again.

A guy is thanking Taylor Lautner for inspiring him to lose 75 pounds.

Taylor says that he mostly plays sports to keep in shape and still works out, but not as much as he did when they were shooting.

Surprise guests are about to be revealed! They’re bringing out tons of actors! Just about every member of the various vampire covens. The stage is packed right now. There’s over 20 cast members and they’re still coming. Now they’re wrapping up — That’s the end of the panel!